What is a Bellwether Trial?

Oct 5, 2018

What is a Bellwether Trial?

Posted By
Fitzpatrick Mariano Santos Sousa P.C.

Have you suffered a serious injury from something like a defective product?
If so, you’re probably not alone. In fact, thousands of people may
have suffered similar consequences from something like a dangerous drug,
defective automobile, and much more. When this is the case, you may be
considering filing a defective product lawsuit, but the sheer volume of
the number of these lawsuits can be immensely difficult for the civil
court system to handle.

When an abundance of similar lawsuits against a common defendant or group
of defendants exist, your case may be affected by what are known as “bellwether
trials.” To put it simple, all bellwether trial is a “representative
sample” from which the findings will be used in all of the other
trials in the larger group. These are particularly common in “multidistrict
litigations” or MDLs, which are cases with similar facts and circumstances
that are scheduled to be trialed in different court districts around the
country. Bellwether trials are a way that these massive suits by establishing
some common facts and findings that will be utilized across all of these
trials in the various districts across the country.

By utilizing bellwether trials, certain facts and evidence will be established,
expert witness testimony will be entered, and a number of key components
regarding all of these cases will be discussed and litigated. The findings
from these cases are then sent to these individual districts in order
to speed up the process and get a faster resolution for each of them.

What Bellwether Trials Don’t Do

It’s important to note that bellwether trials don’t do a number
of things. First, they don’t guarantee that you will win your injury
case. The only thing they do is establish evidence and arguments as well
as how they are decided in court. You’ll still have to demonstrate
that you have a valid case. Likewise, if you wish to utilize the findings
of these bellwether trials, you’ll have to show how your case is
similar and how you’ve had many of the same “questions of
facts” that were litigated during the bellwether trials.

Second, bellwether trials are not tried to conclusion. They are merely
litigated to the point where arguments from both sides have been entered
and litigated in court. Bellwether judges do not adjudicate on these cases.
In order for bellwether cases to receive a verdict, they must go back
to their district courts. Thus, the outcome of these cases doesn’t
necessarily indicate the outcome of your case in any way, although it
could provide you with some important indications about what you can expect.

Finally, bellwether trials are meant to represent a broad range of the
cases involved in the multi-district litigation, but it’s impossible
for one to completely cover all of the unique and intricate details of
your own injury claim. While the findings in bellwether trials may play
a crucial role in your case and provide a proven, established framework
that you and your attorney can build your arguments on, there will still
be smaller details that you’ll need to argue and support with evidence.
This is why it’s so important to have representation and legal counsel
throughout the process.